Chelsea Vs Manchester United Match Preview

 Manchester United take on the league leaders in their first game since a tight mid-week champions league tie with Russian side CSKA Moscow which ended in a 3-3 draw. The champions could regain their regular place at the top of the table with a win over the London club. Overcoming blues is no simple task as united have not beat the Londoners at the bridge for seven years.

Form

With Chelsea only losing two games out of a possible eleven, Carlo Ancelotti’s men are in an amazing run of form and have scored nine goals in just the last two games. As Chelsea looked for fifth successive win in all competitions, they took on Atletico Madrid in a champions league tie but their joy was short lived after a late equaliser from Sergio Aguero only giving the blues a point. United were also involved mid-week when they took on CSKA Moscow. Moscow, who led from the twenty fifth minute and Ferguson’s men only managed to draw with the Russian after going down 3-1.

Team News

After recovering from calf and knee injuries, Ryan Giggs and Nemanja Vidic are all likely to start but skipper Gary Neville is unavailable because of his three match ban. Rio Ferdinand and Ji Sung Park have both not recovered from their injuries. Dimitar Berbatov also recovered from a knee injury but has been ruled out eariler after being unable to train. For the blues Nicolas Anelka is likely to return alongside Didier Drogba after sitting on the bench for the 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid. Deco could also start in place of Joe Cole even though the England international has impressed since returning from a long injury, Cole seemed slightly off the pace in champions league tie against Madrid. Defenders Ricardo Carvalho and Branislav Ivanovic are both expected to come back into the starting XI at the expense of Alex and Juliano Belletti.

Likely Teams

Man Utd: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Evans, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Fletcher, Anderson, Carrick, Valencia, Rooney.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Cole, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Deco, Anelka, Drogba.

 

Official

The referee for the game is Martin Atkinson. Atkinson, who refereed arguably the greatest Manchester derby of all time, will be the man in the middle on Sunday. He’s brandished 56 yellow cards since the beginning of the season but has yet to show a red.

 

(c) Oliver McGrath & Blogsfc

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